One Of Five Finalists For UI Job Drops Out

One of five finalists for the president’s job at the University of Idaho withdrew Tuesday.

B. Hobson Wildenthal, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas in Dallas, cited financial reasons for taking himself out of the running.

“I have concluded that UTD’s commitment to my future role here as provost and tenured professor of physics is so substantial that it is not feasible for me to continue as a candidate for the U of I presidency, given the financial and other constraints attached to that prospective appointment,” Wildenthal said in a letter to the Idaho Board of Education.

The UI presidency pays $120,000 a year, use of a house and an automobile.

The board is meeting in Moscow today in executive session with all of the candidates.

It is expected to make a decision Thursday.

There are four remaining finalists.

They include Larry Branen, a UI professor of food science and toxicology and former dean of agriculture; Nicholas L. Henry, president of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro; Robert A. Hoover, vice president for academic affairs at the University of Nevada at Reno; and J. Kirk Sullivan, a lobbyist and vice president for Boise Cascade Corp.

, DataTimes